over rising worms, flighty,they sprint a few feet,stop, cock the headfor Persephone; and Hades,

keeper of the full equation,that easily letting her go.

The Daily Palette Vintage--featuring Iowa Writes

About Iowa Writes:

Since 2006, "Iowa Writes" has featured the work of Iowa-identified writers on The Daily Palette, and it has recently expanded its scope to include work published by Iowa journals and publishers. Curated by the staff of The Iowa Review, "Iowa Writes" features poetry, fiction, or nonfiction several times a week on the Palette. In November of 2008, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) designated Iowa City, Iowa, the world's third City of Literature, making the community part of the UNESCO Creative Cities Network. Iowa City has joined Edinburgh, Scotland and Melbourne, Australia as UNESCO Cities of Literature. Find out more about submitting by contacting iowa-writes@uiowa.edu.

TOM RUUD

Tom Ruud writes: "I live in Saint Paul, MN with my wife, Sylvia, and two dogs, Sparky and Pepper. With a BA in Classics and MFA in Writing, I teach both publicly and privately in the Twin Cities area. My poems have appeared in numerous national and local journals, as well as in my first book, Unable for the World to Sleep (2005)."

This poem originally appeared in Volume 5, Number 6 of 100 Words, a journal published by the University of Iowa's International Writing Program between 1993 and 1998. Each piece in the journal had to be 100 words or fewer, and each issue had a theme. This issue's theme was "On Garden."